From New York Times bestselling author William Martin comes a WWII thriller as intense as The Day of the Jackal and as gripping as The Eye of the Needle . In December '41 , Martin takes us on the ultimate manhunt, a desperate chase from Los Angeles to Washington, D. C., in the first weeks of the Second World War. On the day after Pearl Harbor, shocked Americans gather around their radios to hear Franklin Roosevelt declare war. In Los Angeles, a German agent named Martin Browning is planning to kill FDR on the night he lights the National Christmas Tree. Who will stop him? Relentless FBI Agent Frank Carter? Kevin Cusack, a Hollywood script reader who also spies on the German Bund of Los Angeles, and becomes a suspect himself? Or Vivian Hopewell, the aspiring actress who signs on to play Martin Browning's wife and cannot help but fall in love with him? The clock is ticking. The tracks are laid. The train of narrow escapes, mistaken identities, and shocking deaths is right on schedule. It's a thrilling ride that will sweep you from the back lots of Hollywood to the speeding Super Chief to that solemn Christmas Eve, when twenty thousand people gather on the South Lawn of the White House and the lives of Franklin Roosevelt and his surprise guest, Winston Churchill, hang in the balance. “A remarkable story that will keep you reading late into the night.” ―Catherine Coulter, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Vortex “Instantly cinematic and endlessly entertaining, December '41 is an absolute page turner.” ―Hank Phillippi Ryan, USA Today bestselling author of Her Perfect Life William Martin served in Naval Intelligence for many years and now living in Charente, France, where he devotes his time to military history and cognac. A regular contributor to a number of military and current affairs journals, he is now writing a new biography of Marshal Petain. This is his first book for Osprey.